rts and carrying off the records. Frankland sent William Cocke, later
the first senator from Tennessee, to Congress with a memorial, asking
Congress to accept the territory North Carolina had offered and to
receive it into the Union as a separate State. Congress ignored the
plea. It began to appear that North Carolina would be victor in the end;
and so there were defections among the Franklanders. Sevier wrote
to Benjamin Franklin asking his aid in establishing the status of
Frankland; and, with a graceful flourish of his ready pen, changed the
new State's name to Franklin by way of reinforcing his arguments. But
the old philosopher, more expert than Sevier in diplomatic calligraphy,
only acknowledged the compliment and advised the State of Franklin to
make peace with North Carolina.

Sevier then appealed for aid and recognition to the Governor of Georgia,
who had previously appointed him Brigadier General of militia. But
the Governor of Georgia also avoided giving the recognition requested,
though he earnestly besought Sevier to come down and settle the Creeks
for him. There were others who sent pleas to Sevier, the warrior, to
save them from the savages. One of the writers who addressed him did not
fear to say "Your Excellency," nor to accord Nolichucky Jack the whole
dignity of the purple in appealing to him as the only man possessing the
will and the power to prevent the isolated settlements on the Cumberland
from being wiped out. That writer was his old friend, James Robertson.

In 1787, while Sevier was on the frontier of Greene County, defending
it from Indians, the legal forces of North Carolina swooped down on his
estate and took possession of his negroes. It was Tipton who represented
the law; and Tipton carried off the Governor's slaves to his own estate.
When Nolichucky Jack came home and found that his enemy had stripped
him, he was in a towering rage. With a body of his troops and one small
cannon, he marched to Tipton's house and besieged it, threatening a
bombardment. He did not, however, fire into the dwelling, though he
placed some shots about it and in the extreme corners. This opera bouffe
siege endured for several days, until Tipton was reinforced by some of
his own clique. Then Tipton sallied forth and attacked the besiegers,
who hastily scattered rather than engage in a sanguinary fight with
their neighbors. Tipton captured Sevier's two elder sons and was only
strained from hanging them on being i